Family friends Judy and Steve gave me a Borders gift card for graduation. So far I have purchased “Rules for Radicals” by Saul Alinsky and “Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching” by Dave Foreman and Bill Haywood. Reviews will be forthcoming and I’m sure they’ll be awesome.
When my sister and I were looking through my mother’s old things last week we came across a piece of paper with two lines on it. It said this:
When you’re green you’re growing,
When you’re ripe you’re almost rotten.
I don’t really know what it means but I took the paper and have written the quote in the inside cover of my planner. I have never felt so unprepared for the world as when I began to face it knowing my mother wouldn’t be there to guide me when I needed it or act as a sounding board as I worked my own problems out when I didn’t. At such a green stage in my life it’s comforting to me to know that at some point she felt there was power in youth and ignorance and the learning process yet to come. It comforts me to know that there is some joy in not being “there”. I don’t know precisely what to do or where I’m going but I’m a little glad… I’m not quite ready to be almost rotten. Finally, it reminds me to take opportunities to grow and learn. Nothing was more important to my mother than education. In the past, sorrow has broken me and held me back from doing what I’m capable of. For her sake, I can’t afford to stall my life, my growing experiences, because of grief. I must be motivated by my sadness.
I’ve been offered a job for the fall! I have another interview on Tuesday after which I have decisions to make. I’ll tell you all about it when decision time is over.
Still need a job for the summer.
Andy and I went today for the first time to volunteer at ACRES student farm. Everyone was very nice, the weather was beautiful and we got to plant some rockin’ veggies. I’ll probably post someday about the farm with pictures, until then I’d like to help them out over the summer as much as I can. Next weekend Andy and I were going to head to South Dakota for some camping but I’m having people in town the next few weekends so I’ll probably push to stay here and work at the farm again and clean the house since it will be our last chance for a while.
Class starts on Monday. 1St summer session= Minority Media 2nd=Research methods :0(
So, there’s tons to back-blog (I don’t think that’s a term) but I’ve realized today that while that seems like an overwhelming task, current-blogging isn’t that hard. So before we move back to powershift etc. lets talk now.
Yesterday Andy and I attended an informational meeting hosted by the Medicine Bow group of the Sierra club about the proposed Coal to Liquids plant that may be going up in our back yard. There are so many reasons why this project is important and Andy and I are going to be brainstorming about what we can do to bring the campaign to campus and stand in solidarity with those already fighting. Suggestions are always welcome. Here are a few things I learned:
The plant received it’s citing permit in 2007 and its air quality permit earlier this year. The Sierra club is in the process of developing a legal challenge to the recent air quality permit based on it’s lack of adequate accounting particularly of the cumulative effects of the plant, unconsidered toxic and hazardous materials, lack of regulation of fine particulate matter and lack of ozone modeling. Some of the CO2 emissions will be captured for tertiary oil recovery and the company claims that the rest “may” be captured and sequestered if the technology is invented and tested by the time the plant is operational. The plant receives support from Arch Coal but is spearheaded by a corporation called DKRW.
Coal to Liquids technology is extremely untested and we have many questions about this process. The only wide scale usages of the process have been by Nazi Germany and South Africa under apartheid and there has NEVER been a plant built in the US. To those who are not concerned with the environmental impacts this means to you that coal based liquid transportation fuel has NEVER proven competitive in a market which also had a supply of petroleum products or renewable energy sources.
The process works something like this: Coal and Oxygen are input to a chemical reaction under high pressure and heat which produces Syn Gas. The gas is then refined by removing the Mercury and Sulfur which can possibly be sold as well as some of the CO2 which could “theoretically” be sequestered. This gassification process is the first step toward coal gassification electricity production, the production of chemical plant inputs, or as in this case, the transformation into a liquid fuel.
A few concerns I have: The environmental and human impact of the active underground and strip coal mines necessary to produce it’s projected 18-20k barrels a day, particulate matter air contaminants, the emission of CO2, dangerous transport of Mercury and Sulfur to chemical plants where its future life cycle is equally as destructive, community impacts from the 3 years of a $3billion dollar investment that creates thousands of jobs to build a plant that employs a fraction of that, massive aquifer use to cool the process and add to liquids, enormous energy input to heat chemical process etc. There will be many posts forthcoming regarding specific dangers of the plant.
All this to produce an energy source less than 1/3 as productive as its input (i.e. 3 units of coal energy= 1 unit of liquid coal energy) with perhaps twice the carbon footprint over it’s lifecycle as if we simply burned the coal and released it’s emmissions without gassification that is 15%-30% more expensive than gassoline(i.e. non-competative). More importantly, taking the so-called “developed” world’s Coal-to-liquid virginity is a thinly veiled attempt by energy companies to maintain a fossil-fuel based transportation industry rather than come to terms with the realities of a post-peak-oil world. Every dollar spent on this red herring is one that is not busy developing the cleen energy transportation future that is necessary for our long-term survival.
This weekend Andy and I are headed to DC for Powershift ‘09 and the Capitol Climate Action.
Powershift is a youth environmental conference with about 11,000 confirmed participants and an amazing line up of speakers and performers that you will hear about throughout the weekend.
The Capitol Climate Action is a massive planned act of civil disobedience taking place at the coal fired power plant that supplies the capitol building with power. We hope to shut it down to send a clear message to those in power that the marriage between government and destructive energy MUST come to an end.
Thoughts and hopes for the weekend:
1~ I hope to liveblog my experience to the best of my ability this weekend, although time will be short.
2~ I hope to network with organizations and schools which may play a role in my future. I dred the thought of the job fair but I’ve got to do it sometime.
3~ I hope to meet some folks from the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) who might be useful sources for my thesis and perhaps even friends for the future.
4~ I hope to work through some conflicting thoughts I have about the movement and begin to find my place. Much of that thought process will happen here.
5~ I hope to become inspired to take more of a leadership role in the community in which I live. I knew so many in progressive activism in Lubbock and it was much easier to get plugged in to the things that matter knowing when I showed up there would be familiar faces. Here, I have neglected my role as member of the community almost completely and become a hermit. I need to stand up and start something real here. NOTE (to self): sometime soon I must write about the history of environmental activism in Wyoming (Mike Roselle anyone?). The research will be inspiring and I must be convinced that this is not a rest period for me simply because I am uncomfortable here.
6~ I hope to make some tough decisions about my graduate school career and my summer that might facilitate my future ability to make a difference.
7~ I hope to contribute to a crying out of the people for justice and a future we can live with and in that is necesary for change.
8~ I hope to learn tactics for use in my activism and theories for my study that will ignite inspiration for something useful to say in the most individual and largest academic undertaking of my life. I want my thesis to be more than an analysis of the rhetorical tactics of RAN but a manifesto about the nature and direction of this movement. A position paper that will define for me my place in the movement and the vision of activism that I choose to explore.
A central theme here is that I want to be (re)connected to activists and the things they are doing. Because I spend so much of my time writing about social movements a little hands on learning is likely just what I need to jump start my personal role as an advocate. Studying a social movement from the outside is like reading about the Grand Canyon. Its just a disconnected, dead, useless hole in the ground… until you stand in the midst and look around.
So… I was blogging about our trip and then grad school happened. Oops
In the future this will be a serious spot. I don’t expect anyone to read it but I hope to record for myself the things that I did and more importantly the things that I thought. This weekend I hope to write extensively about our trip to DC and things I can be doing to make the world a better place. I’m sorry that my blogging is like every other aspect of communication in my life… likely to go offline for months at a time. Although I still won’t have much time to write, there is so much I would like to say about the new world ahead of us and the things we must do to get there. Eventually I hope that someone might stumble across my musings and be inspired.
Take a Stand. Stand tall. Stand for what is right. Stand proud. Stand down from violence. STAND UP for your rights.
Thursday night we arrived in Vegas and were more than excited to check in to our room at the Excalibur.
Simple and cheep the first night
We spent the night walking around the Luxor and Excalibur, gambled some, had a free steak dinner that was a delicious warm up for a few days of amazing food. We rode the “slantyvator” at the Luxor which travels diagonally up the side of the pyramid and admired the NYNY skyline and the piercing beam of the pyramid flanked by our fairy tale castle. The Excalibur was somewhere we both really wanted to stay and I’m so glad we got the chance although it was by far our least extravagant experience of the weekend. When Andy was young he would travel to Vegas for gymnastics competitions and while everyone else stayed at the Excalibur he and his father would bed down at the Circus Circus. He was glad to see what all the fuss was about.
The presentation of Excalibur to Arthur by the lady of the lake. Andy is a rather more lighthearted version of the great pendragon.
For my part, I of course was ecstatic to stay at the hotel with an Arthurian theme, especially to start off my fairy tale engagement trip.
The Lady of the Lake.
We didn't have anyone around to play Merlin. Where's my dad when you need him?
Because we arrived so late, the best part about our first night in Vegas was falling asleep in my love’s arms with a colorful castle watching over us. The remainder of the weekend was short on photos, unfortunately, and high on fun so I’ll try to piece it together the best I can. And there was evening, and there was morning… the first day.
We began our journey shortly after school was released for summer.
Geting our luck Gambling glasses on and heading out the door
We spent the night in Albuquerque before making a late start Thursday morning on the road to sin city. Along the way we had to stop by Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park to check out the scenery. As a child nearly every vacation saw my family roaming around one or more national parks, historic areas, forests etc as my mother filled her National Parks Service Passport with stamps recording our visits. Its not surprising that my sister is a park ranger now and that the first thing I thought to do with the man I will spend my life with is to start a passport of our journey together.
Beginning our family together the right way, in the spirit of conservation.
Can you truly be considered a functioning adult until you own your own Passport to YOUR National Parks? You may notice that Andy looks slightly unkempt. This is a trend that is likely to be noted throughout this series of photos. Upon entering the park the rangers reccommend that you never open both doors of the car at once to avoid a wind tunnel of epic proportions, and that you not stand too close to the edge of cliffs (always good advice). This being a stop of romantic impulse neither of us was prepared for the whipping wind that is threatening to blow my skirt clean away in every picture and Andy’s hair away in this one.
We didn't get to trek across this petrified agate bridge like early pioneers because we didn't have the energy to enslave a native to show us the way.
Oh No it's just ice cream!
I can't believe he's still smiling
This flower was blooming so beautifully in the midst of a desert. Coupled with the stone, incomprehensibly ancient, it seems even more transient and vulnerable. A mircicle in the armpit of the organic world.
Walking a path in the park Andy and I began to feel like we were lost in inescapeable ruin in the desert. The dry wind zapped every bit of moisture out of your mouth and eyes and the sun makes everything surreal and wavering.
Andy can't take the stress of the journey any longer, he finds a "soft" spot to rest his head.
Throughout the park you can see the way the trees fell thousands of years before where they lay undisturbed.
The beautiful layers on the cliffs give the painted desert it's name
The National Parks Service deserves your support in preserving places like the petrified forest for both the unique formations of the past but also the living ecosystems of the present. Pick up a passport and begin collecting for yourselves. Mother’s day was a few days away so while we were at the park I picked up a beautiful archival leather-bound National Parks and National Historic and scenic route atlas for my mother to help give my parent’s scenic drives a bit more direction.
This slab of stone is completely disjointed from the rest of the cliff. For hundreds of years it has not plummeted to the ground and I can't figure out why. Although, while I was standing upon it I gave the matter serious consideration.
Although the park delayed us quite a bit we eventually moved on the rest of the way into Vegas. Tune in for Chapter 2: Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas
Putnicki and I came out on top at NPDA with the help of an unbelievable number of wonderful people. I especially want to thank:
-Andy for being there to see it and for treating me like a champ before I ever was one.
-My mom and sister for following our progress and celebrating when it was over.
-Joe for running an amazing tournament and facilitating our success and bending to our every whim.
-Braz for being a best friend, a good laugh, and a decent coach :0).
-Jessica for being my female inspiration and the best prep coach ever.
-K-Gar the Horrible/Fierce for sacrificing so much to be here and for finally giving us the “how to be a champ” lecture.
-Brendo for providing the extra sauce to spice up our performance and for being the anti-braz.
-Blake for teaching us to debate with our hearts and to have a good time doing it
-Keith for teaching us everything we know about winning judges and strategy
-Vamsi for being the most comforting person in prep, for all the “tell me everything you know lectures,” for teaching us both how to argue, and for taking my side against Putt.
-Joffrion for not letting me quit.
-Ric for letting me debate even when I had no promise and for caring for us as people.
-All my wonderful friends in the community, because you are the reason I love this activity and I hope we’ll always see each other from time to time and continue the long tradition of trash talk and mutual admiration :0)
Very, very, very special thanks to Anthony Putnicki, for being the reason I came back, for teaching me skills and confidence, for being an amazing friend and sharing the same brain, for always making the right arguments fast enough so I don’t have to do any work, for being so amazing that even when you drop a disad it could hardly matter less and for giving me shit when I deserved it, and quite often when I didn’t… and especially for being the one who has seen me at my lowest and loving me anyways. There is nothing quite like the perfect debate partner to win your heart.
And now… pictures!
Final round against Ben and McCabe
Lindsey and I celebrate afterwards, although I didn't get to party as much as I would have liked because a certain Texas school kept us up until the wee hours the night before with ridiculousness. Still, I was surrounded by my best friends and had an amazing time with everyone.
Our lovely trophy! There aren't very many pictures of us with it but that is probably by design
Filled with Vodka and something else... anyone remember?
The round in action... ask a sassy question, get a sassy answer.
Prep time assisted by the brightest minds in the nation.
Much more blogging coming soon I hope, until then check out the video of the final round: First Half
and Second Half
Also check out the first five seconds or so of this video… it’s hilarious! Semifinals
